ENGLISH AND WELSH sparkling wines are now acknowledged to be world class. Still whites are starting to make an impact but our reds seem destined to linger in a viticultural Limbo, the gates to Paradise steadfastly denied. In 1691 Richard Ames wrote an epic poem about his fruitless search for a decent glass of claret in the inns of London, castigating nearly all the innkeepers for the rubbish he tasted. If Ames were alive today he might have done a similar walk looking for a decent glass of English red except, of course, that hardly any pubs serve it. Maybe he would be harranging them for not.
Yet the fact is a lot of English reds taste better than the mediocrity so often served in pubs but they are either not marketed properly or, more likely, too expensive for publicans who often won’t buy for more than £5 a bottle wholesale – before they treble or quadruple the price when they sell it. Richard Ames would have had something to say about that
There is hope. The grape that gave Bergundy its charisma, Pinot Noir, notoriously moody to grow over here, is beginning to make its mark in the UK. Jilly Goolden in a recent blind tasting said of Gusbourne Estate’s 2011 Pinot Noir that it was “divine” and could not possibly be English because we struggle to make red. Wine expert Stephen Skelton said the same wine was the best English red he had tasted. Maybe we are all a bit blind to our own achievements. I purchased Sharpham’s much praised Pinot Noir and Précoce 2011 recently and they told me to lay it down for a few years. I did what I was told, totally fazed by this being the first time anyone had recommended laying down an English wine for so long. Bolney also makes a good Pinot (its Foxhole 2013 won a silver medal in this year’s International Wine Challenge) and Ancre Hill in Wales has high hopes as does brand new vineyard Jabajak deep into west Wales despite being located rather high up.
But Pinot Noir is not the only fruit. Some vineyards are having success with Regent which is relatively easy to grow and fairly disease resistant. Professor Richard C Selley in his seminal book, The Winelands of Britain said that good red wine has been difficult to produce but things were changing with the introduction of Rondo, an immigrant from Manchuria which, he observed, produces “excellent red wine in marginal climatic conditions”.

It is not often I have the chance of visiting a vineyard with no less than 430 different varieties of vine on display. But yesterday was the annual open day for Sunnybank Vine Nursery run by Sarah Bell and Richard Stow. It is home to the National Collection of Vines spread in neat formation across 0.4 remote hectares in rolling Herefordshire countryside facing Garway Hill, once owned by the Knights Templar.

I had the pleasure of being shown around by Sarah who bought the vineyard in 2008 knowing very little about vines. She has learned fast, helped by Brian Edwards, the former founder-owner (above with Sarah) , who joined us walking up and down between the rows commenting on the pros and cons of every vine within sight. I couldn’t help asking them what vine they would recommend for would-be amateur wine makers wanting to avoid complications (who could I have been thinking about?).
Interestingly, from all of the 430 varieties around them they both chose the same two: Seyval, which “ripens right up to Yorkshire” for white wines and Rondo (“early ripening on any site”) for red.

Some of the 430 varieties

Other tips – Don’t even think of trying to grow the claret grape Cabernet Sauvignon in the UK (though Cabernet Cortis is a fair English substitute for it). Shiraz is no good in the UK either. Seiggerrebe can make a good wine but is a small cropper Triomphe d Alsace is effectively disease resistance.
Sarah, whose day job is in the software industry, finances the vineyard by selling roots and cuttings during the dormant season (November to March) from her website www.sunnybankvines.co.uk